


The cycle cannot be broken.

by Scientist_Salarian



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Other, Reapers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 22:58:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2001177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scientist_Salarian/pseuds/Scientist_Salarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reaper war from the viewpoint of everyone's favorite Reaper Harbinger as it steadily grows more and more annoyed with Shepard and her meddling. This will span all three games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The cycle cannot be broken.

**Author's Note:**

> While the Reapers are portrayed as nothing more than machines that are bent on ensuring the Harvest proceeds as it always should it's interesting to see just how much Shepard pisses Harbinger off. I'm thinking that it all started with her defeat of Sovereign and delaying the arrival for two more years. Re-reading it seemed precise and to the point and I felt that would be how a Reaper perceives the world around them, why waste time going into detail when to them such things are inconsequential.
> 
> Especially if this first bit is Sovereign more or less summing up its adventures in the milky way in the fraction of a second it takes from the Normandy and everyone else to fire on it and its destruction.

Even in sleep Nazara's destruction had been felt.  
  
For a brief moment it had awoken, sensory data flooded every receptor as it set about trying to organize and catalogue each oncoming packet, trying to piece it together in that the flashes of 'memories' made sense.  
  
Nazara had alluded to organic interference, assuring it that it was minimal and inconsequential.  
  
The total destruction of their vanguard was... Unexpected.  
  
As more systems came online it was able to spare the processors towards cataloguing all that Nazara had reported.  
  
From their initial departure to rest before the start of the next harvest to its observations of all the seeds left over from the past cycle.  
  
Then it grew quiet, Nazara watched the evolution of each race, their progression, how the Asari seemed to advance faster than the rest. It was fascinated by it, drifting undetected world to world observing before it would power down and wait.  
  
The Asari achieved space flight, colonizing worlds within their borders, how the citadel was soon discovered and too colonized.  
  
The Salarians were soon to follow and both they and the Asari met and agreed on mutual terms of peace, each taking a seat on the newly formed Citadel Council.  
  
Their advancements were pleasing, the progression of a cycle within set parameters. Each race met with their share of misfortunes however, a show of good faith by the Salarians had the League of One respond violently. It watched as the league members were hunted down and destroyed.  
  
Bored with galactic relations, Nazara had then begun to experiment with the Rachni. It remembered them from the previous cycle and wanted to see how the new cycle would handle resurgence. It tracked the Queens to their worlds and found they were susceptible to mild suggestion, how their songs would twist into discord.  
  
It watched as the Rachni spread at a feverish pace, the queens desperate to get away from it, trying to save their children and the combined races of the citadel moving to meet them.  
  
Nazara watched as they were unable to halt the aggression, how for every world burned the Rachni would spread tenfold.  
  
It gave insight on how far their technology had come. Chronologically they were... On schedule.  
  
Then it saw the Salarian discovery of the Krogan, how they believed to harness the species aggression to fight this impossible enemy.  
  
And they did.  
  
Nazara watched the Krogan beat them back, forcing them back to their homeworld.  
  
The galaxy watched with baited breath as the Krogan stomped every last queen into oblivion.  
  
Save one, Nazara observed, a single ship with a single viable egg had escaped detection and would lay dormant. Perhaps it would intervene at a later time.  
  
It was the Krogan's turn to rebel, to turn on their 'masters'. Nazara was quite interested in this conflict. The Krogan bred rapidly and were almost as numerous as the Rachni.  
  
They would not be slaves.  
  
Again the council races reached out and that in turn had them find the Turians, and they would become the answer for the Krogan.  
  
It was a brutal conflict, they traded blow for blow until the Krogan began to use space itself against the Turians, flinging asteroids into their colonies.  
  
Manae would mark the Turians last stand, lest it be victory or defeat they would die to keep Palaven safe.  
  
Nazara saw how in secret the Turians were preparing to unleash their greatest weapon. Salarian engineered, and unleashed by the Turians it targeted the Krogan's advantage, their numbers.  
  
As the genophage crippled them, Nazara watched the Turians beat them back until the Krogan were defeated. The Turians with the help of the Salarians had won.  
  
Then the memories stopped, and Harbinger was left to process all it had witnessed, the end of the Krogan rebellions and the rise of the council with the Turian Empire becoming the force of military might in the galaxy.  
  
They would learn soon enough that they could do little to stop the harvest.  
  
Nazara's memories resumed with its discovery by the Batarians. It allowed their prodding for some time before departing.  
  
Much had changed on the galactic stage with the arrival of the Humans. It knew of the Relay 314 incident between human vessels and the Turians, the occupation of Shanxi...  
  
Trivial matters compared to what truly interested it.  
  
The Morning War.  
  
It showed some interest in the Geth, synthetics that rebelled against their creators as had been prevalent in cycles passed.  
  
The keeper signal had failed, and Nazara needed assistance to complete its task. The Geth would do and it would seek them out in time but it needed more.  
  
Saren Arterius was first name of any weight, Nazara caring little for any others, the Turian in his search for the artifact he had learned about through both Batarians and Salarian came across their Vanguard.  
  
Nazara had humoured him and told him of the destiny of this cycle and the fate of those that had come before.  
  
Saren had listened, and Saren plead the case as to why the organics of this cycle were different. He vowed to aid Nazara in its duties in order to preserve all sapient life.  
  
Harbinger saw Nazara's first contact with the Geth and observed, they were in awe as was expected of them. But not all were willing to listen, Harbinger watched as the Geth broke into separate groups and some followed them while the others were content to remain upon the world they had taken.  
  
Harbinger knew of the disdain that Nazara had for their petty beliefs and worship, but tolerated it. It would be their god, and Saren would serve as their prophet.  
  
If it meant the Geth would follow it then it would allow for such foolishness.  
  
Saren proved useful in all tasks that Nazara had lay before him, the Turian was determined to prove that organics could be useful.  
  
He hadn't noticed the quiet whispering at the back of his mind, the silent urgings to do all and anything Nazara commanded. The Geth obeyed willingly, asking for technology in exchange for their loyalty and Nazara did offer some.  
  
Saren even proved his usefulness in recruiting others to the cause. An Asari Matriarch entered the fold, Nazara knew her intentions, but she would fail. Its own will was far stronger.  
  
She believed it was Saren's influence that swayed her. She didn't realize it was something much more.  
  
Saren wisely kept its true nature hidden, and Benezia believed 'Sovereign' to simply be a Geth construct from beyond the veil.  
  
It was a Prothean beacon that turned its sights to Eden Prime, Nazara had told Saren that the beacon would show the truth, the fate that awaited any and all organic.  
  
And Saren listened, he accepted more, abandoning his mortality, his fleshy form to become something more.  
  
Nazara knew Saren would become the tool it needed, and he had no idea that he was losing more and more of his free will as time progressed.  
  
The pieces were falling into place.  
  
  
But there was an obstacle, Saren had assumed that he would be able to keep it from it but.. He would need to learn otherwise.  
  
It was a human, a female. Her mind had touched the beacon and too set her on the path.  
  
Saren had assured it that The one called Shepard would pose no problem to them, that she would be dealt with swiftly to ensure she did not learn more than she needed.  
  
The human proved however to be considerably more resourceful than Saren had anticipated and instead tracked him across the galaxy.  
  
She had killed Benezia, released the Rachni queen and moved on.  
  
Saren's anger was palpable, Nazara's own displeasure manifesting within him only added to it.  
  
Feros was next, the Geth proved they too were unable to slow the humans progress. She discovered the Thorian and she destroyed it.  
  
Then she followed Saren to Virmire.  
  
She and the small company of Salarian STG members breezed their way through the facility.  
  
Nazara had watched and observed her progress, how she managed to avoid an incident with the Krogan member of her team, talking him down and earning his cooperation and loyalty. It watched as they destroyed the cloning facilities that Saren used to breed his army of Krogan.  
  
She then found the beacon.  
  
It was at that time that Nazara heeded the beacons call and its avatar appeared before them.  
  
This human needed to know that the cycle would come to a close, the Harvest would not be impeded.  
  
Shepard asked and Nazara would answer.  
  
It was the vanguard of their destruction.  
  
This organic would know that, and they would bow, there was no stopping what had been in motion for the passed fifty thousand years.  
  
Nazara withdrew and closed the connection, it knew it had left Shepard with the understanding that all her actions leading up to this point had been for naught.  
  
Saren had withdrawn after a short bout of combat with Shepard. His facility was lost and he understood that, they had bigger plans to attend to.  
  
Ilos,  
  
It was where Saren would depart and board the Citadel and take control of the station.  
  
Neither would have anticipated that Shepard would follow.  
  
Nazara did not know until it arrived in the Serpent Nebula, Saren was attempting to take control of the station and Shepard...  
  
Nazara knew Shepard was the reason that Saren would not heed any instruction and would not respond. It waited, control of the station was all it would need to open the relay and allow for the passage of the others.  
  
Then Saren stopped responding.  
  
Nazara knew the Turian had been beaten, or betrayed it, the Citadel's ward arms began to open and it watched as the Human Fifth Fleet joined the remnants of the Citadel Fleet and the Destiny Ascension in repelling the Geth.  
  
It fought two battles, dividing its processes to combat the human ships and control the husk of Saren's implants to kill Shepard once and for all.  
  
When the husk was destroyed many systems were overloaded, and the precious seconds needed for the necessary reboot were luxury that it could not afford.  
  
It released it's hold on the station, focused solely on retreating to the relay.  
  
It was Shepard’s ship that would strike the final blow, all data was uploaded and sent and processes began to fail and its body began to fail before disintegrating.  
  
Harbinger would be left to make sense of Nazara's final thought.  
  
  
  
Shepard.  
  
That name echoed throughout the minds of both Nazara in its final moments and Harbinger.  
  
Shepard.  
  
Hated, yet intrigued by. This human challenged them, challenged Nazara, challenged the whole of the Reaper fleet.  
  
This female, eyes narrowed flanked by both Turian and Krogan, issued her challenged. Willing to stand against those infinitely her greater.  
  
This creature fascinated Harbinger, even though it sensed the utter loathing that Nazara had felt towards something so insignificant. Perhaps it was the blatant disrespect or even the challenge present in her eyes.  
  
This organic was an anomaly, she would not bow.  
  
 _I will direct this personally._  
  
The harvest would proceed as it should, and Harbinger would not allow for an organic to get in the way, nor would she kill another of them.


End file.
